Polar Yeti And The Beasts Of Prehistory by Matthew Dennion Page A

houseguest for the next two weeks, you will return me to my team and that will be then end of it. In that time, I can be the first person in history to study and document the life of a Yeti.”
    Gina resolve was solid but her body was freezing. It took her a moment to realize that the only source of heat in the cave was the Yeti himself. Gina had not really noticed it when they were walking through the snowstorm outside, but inside the confines of the cave, she quickly became aware of how horrible the Yeti smelled. Gina swallowed hard as she told herself that smelling bad was better than freezing to death. She pulled her scarf over her nose and mouth, walked over to the Yeti, and laid down beside him. Gina was exhausted and despite the circumstances that she was faced with, she quickly fell asleep.
    Back in camp, Henry was trying to get the rescue party together as quickly as he could. He was yelling out random orders to people. Rodgers was cleaning guns and checking ammunition when Henry shouted at him, “Get the shotguns ready and onto the Sno-Cats! I want us tracking that beast within the hour!”
    Rodgers stopped what he was doing and walked up to Henry. “Look, you need to sit down and shut up. You are not thinking clearly. Your wife has been taken by a monster and you want to save her. I can appreciate your desire to save her, but I will be dammed if I am going to let you put together a rushed expedition that gets us all killed. First of all, the shotguns will be useless. From what I have seen from the mammoths and the Yeti, anything less than a high-powered rifle is going to do us more harm than good. Did you even think about how rocky the pass to the valley is? There is no way in hell that the Sno-Cats will be able to make it over that terrain. The only way that we are going to get past those boulders is with the snowmobiles.” Rodgers pointed to one of the remaining barracks. “Go sit down and get yourself ready to go into the valley. I will coordinate setting up the rescue team.”
    Henry was silent for a moment as he considered what Rodgers had said. Henry knew that Gina would loathe to give control of everything over to Rodgers, but he had to admit that Rodgers was right. Henry knew that he was not thinking straight because he was in such emotional distress over Gina’s abduction. While he wanted to keep control over the expedition, more than anything else he wanted to get Gina back safely and Rodgers was his best bet at accomplishing that goal. He nodded. “Okay Rodgers, set things up and then come and get me when we are ready to head out into the valley.”
    Rodgers didn’t reply. He simply nodded at Henry and then he started shouting out orders to the rescue team. Henry climbed down off the Sno-Cat and walked slowly back to the barracks with his mind thinking only of once again holding Gina safely in his arms again. He had no sooner closed the door to the barracks then Jun-Tuk walked in behind him. The old man approached Henry and spoke in a very direct manner, “I have lost my daughter and I will not let you lose your wife. If you let the man who hunts for sport lead this rescue mission, your wife will be lost to you and many others will die. His concern is not for your wife. He is only concerned with his own glory. I know this area better than anyone else here. Please let me take you and your people into the valley. Let me help you save your wife and at the same time help to gather the proof to bring to my people that the Yeti is an animal and not a god.”
    Henry was silent for a moment. He knew that Rodgers would not take the news well that he was going to appoint Jun-Tuk the leader of the rescue mission, but he also didn’t care. If Jun-Tuk was his best option at bringing his wife back alive then he would take that option. He stood up. “Let Rodgers finish directing the team on the preparations for the rescue mission and then I will tell him that you will be leading us once we enter the